One of the primary challenges that we face in keeping our favorite non-human species and ecosystems intact in the wild is creating a sustainable world in which we restrain our impulse/need to convert their habitats to human uses. Can humans find a way to sustain our population boom, which will hopefully stabilize at 9 billionish people by 2050 AND keep our favorite species around in the wild? Can zoos find a way to help make this happen?
I agree with David Attenborough on this one. We should be looking at reducing the world population, but most governments are not really bothered and don't understand Malthus. To keep populations stable, the number of people born needs to equal the number of people who die each year. Governments spend billions of pounds helping people have more children and keeping people alive as long as possible and then wonder why population goes up. The subject involves a lot of political issues and a lot of hypocrisy. For example, if people in India and China have fridges, it will cause global warming, but if people in Europe and North America were told to dispose of their fridges, there would be outrage. Also, people in the first world make money destroying natural habitats in the third world and then tell the third world nations to protect their own wildlife, even if the people are starving to death. If a dangerous animal kills someone in the first world, there is little concern if the animal is killed. If a dangerous animal kills someone in the third world (unless the person is a first world tourist), we should protect the animal. Many of us talk the talk, but are not prepared to make sacrifices of our own.
I'm afraid that zoos could do a lot more to save endangered species. I remember an estimate a few years ago that if half of the space occupied by zoos was used to save endangered species, 5,000 species of vertebrates could be saved from extinction. The number of species actually saved is pitifully poor, considering the number of species kept over the years. Zootierliste includes several species that have been kept in zoos and are now possibly extinct, often due to lack of interest.
I agree with the ISIS estimate that zoos only need to keep 80 individuals of a species, preferably with a varied gene pool, to save it. I get tired of reading about zoos 'having' to breed various species of large mammals that have captive populations of several hundred and which will never be returned to the wild, because there is insufficient habitat and/or the animals wouldn't be able to live naturally. I'm afraid many zoos are very dishonest about this. There seems to be a desire to have large zoo populations of every extant subspecies of tiger, while there are small cat species with no or very small captive populations. These small cats could be bred and released into the wild. I'm afraid that this is not the case for tigers. Many tigers live in areas with increasing human populations and money for new tiger enclosures would be better spent trying to conserve the remaining natural habitat for tigers and helping human populations live in harmony with nature, if possible. When zoos spend money on species that have high captive populations, this is not to aid conservation, it is to make money. Most people don't know that the Bornean bay cat exists and couldn't care less if it became extinct. If we're going to be totally honest, only a few people would show any interest if a zoo had a Bornean bay cat, but zoos shouldn't be afraid about keeping obscure animals. Zoos have saved various species of Partula snails, but how many people visit a zoo to see small snails? "I've got them in my garden, why should I pay £20 to see them in a zoo?" One of the best conservation programmes at London Zoo has been breeding field crickets and releasing them into the wild. This is true conservation, but gets little praise.
Zoos don't need to keep hundreds of individuals of large species, which are kept for monetary reasons, rather than conservation. They should change their policy to keep more populations of smaller species, which can be bred and released into the smaller areas of suitable habitat that will be available as the human population keeps on increasing. This month, it is estimated that there will be about 7,000 million people. I dread to think about how many species will become extinct in the next few decades, especially those that could have been saved if zoos had taken an interest in them.
